Did you see… Mark Wood bowling reverse swing?

29/07/2024 13:11

3minute read

When it comes to seam bowling, speed is not everything – but it is something. Reverse swing is something too. Mark Wood delivered the best combination of somethings against the West Indies yesterday.

Fast reverse swing is just such a fundamentally wonderful thing. It’s so straightforward, so obvious. Its crushing impact is so easy to see.

For example, just look at this.

No asking the umpire. No punching your forearm to get a second opinion. Just out.

Three years ago, James Anderson's delivered two near-identical reverse-swinging clean bowleds in the same over against India. It was almost perfect bowling. The only thing that could really have improved it was another 10mph.

Mark Wood has that 10mph.

One of the criteria for excellence we assessed in that Anderson article was “stump cartwheeliness”. Wood knocked Jayden Seales’ off stump straight back and when its top end jarred into the turf, it was catapulted into the air. At this point it completed two full revolutions before landing again.

It’s an either-or with rearrangement of stumps. You’re looking for either the splatteriness of Jasprit Bumrah’s yorker to Ollie Pope earlier this year or for one stump to take a long journey of pure, end-over-end, aerial majesty.

This one was the latter.

It was very satisfying.

Although it gets said a lot, it’s actually quite rare to beat a batter for pace. Bowling the ball extremely quickly can definitely make the difference though.

Even lower order batters frequently cope with fast bowling and they frequently handle swing bowling as well.

Fast swing though? Each of those qualities is enhanced by the other.

Alzarri Joseph probably would have hit this one without the swing.

He may equally have dealt with the swing had it not been sent down at 93mph.

A common conclusion about Wood’s spell at Edgbaston was that “his luck turned” after he had repeatedly beaten the bat at speeds of up to 97.1mph in the previous Test.

Our view is that if you beat the bat with a ball that’s directed at the stumps, luck doesn’t play too big a role.

Fast reverse swing has always been glorious. Fast reverse swing will always be glorious.

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